In commission of Festival Klassiek op het Amstelveld, Amsterdam with the premiere at 17 September 2016.
Please read additional information about "Les vingt doigts" here.
Score, part I (truncated preview only, copyrighted material, not for distribution)
Below some images from the "making off" the video-short-cut with Igor Roma and Nikola Meeuwsen behind
the grand. The video recording of it is fulfilled by film-director Andras Hamelberg.
Les vingt doigts - the celebration of Mastership
"Les vingt doigts" is a symbolic strike of four hands: the first hand of the enriched piano-master, the second hand of the young-master, the third hand of the legend-master and the fourth hand of the distinct refined one.
" In the beginning of my composition education I was fortunate to discover the wonderful bundle "Les cinq doigts", by Igor Stravinsky (1921). This extraordinary collection of short piano-compositions for children inspired me not only as a piano-student, but also as a (very studious) music theory-scholar.
Roughly a decade later I still feel much affection for this composition-invention, it's "simplicity" and the language of childlike audacity with which the musical content is expressed. For the commission of "Festival Klassiek op het Amstelveld" I looked back in my studentship and expressed that wonderful enthusiasm in an exclusive composition "Les vingt doigts". My intention was not to literally cite the Russian Giant, but rather to playful refer to his well-known language, as like a new story would be written in his musical-syntax or, even more artistic: as like the old-master would once more interpolate in a contemporary novel...
That was the moment when the unusual idea of "symbolic strike of 4 hands" was born."
Continue reading about the structure here.
The structure in glance
Structurally speaking, the piece consists of two parts, where the first part is subdivided in two musical thoughts. The first sentence is a miniature of the allegory of the piano-master about his rich musical-life that he intends to tell/convey the pupil. The second sentence is a varied reprise of the first that is "imitated" by the scholar and accompanied by the piano-pedagogue, symbolising the essence of the teaching in whole: foreplay and its imitation, or even bigger: the significance of the pupil's own future musical-life accoutered by the experiences of the master.
The second part of this "quatre mains" is a rondo of a "quadrologue" between all initially mentioned artists. This mainly cares an extrovert and festive character, sometimes juxtaposed by some very lyrical passages, but all together painting a colourful tableau of Russian Fair: a true burst of energy, dance, music, rich gastronomy and serpentine.
The musical climax at the end doesn't solve in an expectable "Grand Finale chord", but breaks down in a sarcastic, crooked or just: "Stravinsky-like" 4-part counterpoint (stretto above the augmented theme in the bass) which grows up to a true celebration of Mastership, the essence of this colourful work.
The augmented betonal voices of the fortississimo chord flows in a very fine-tuned medley of motives from the Russian-masquerade and the allegories of the piano-masters exposed at the beginning, which all together let the listener behind in an echoed dream of "Les vingt doigts".
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